The Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee may hold...
The Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee may hold a hearing investigating pay-TV industry billing practices before the end of the year, Chairman Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told us at the Capitol Tuesday. “Not before the end of this work period, but…
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we're meeting next week to see what meetings we'll have in November and December,” she said. “I don’t know if [that possible hearing] will get in that [November-December] group, but I think it might. … I can’t give you a firm answer, but I'll know better next week.” Some members of the Commerce Committee were still reviewing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill that Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., circulated Friday and plan to mark up next week (CD Sept 8 p1). Despite broadcaster attacks on the proposal’s Local Choice and retransmission consent overhaul components, Thune defended the STELA reauthorization, known as the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act, to reporters at the Capitol. “We'll see what kind of traction it gets in the House,” Thune said. Communications Subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was not prepared to speak to STAVRA’s details. “I'm going to get a briefing on that this afternoon,” Wicker told us. McCaskill has said she plans to introduce a bill addressing her pay-TV industry billing concerns and did not rule out attaching it to STAVRA. “It depends,” McCaskill said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at STELA but these are really tough issues, and the question is, will the chairman and the ranking member … have the votes to get it out of committee on a bipartisan basis? The issue is not what is in the STELA draft that’s been released; the issue is, can we pass it? Or should we pass it?”